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You have reached the CCN Inventory Tool Detailed Insights Report.

Congratulations! This geography has available data.

Potential data availability within the Inventory Tool ranges from Tier I, Tier II, or Tier III Carbon stock estimates.

  • Tier I: Global sediment carbon stock estimates.

  • Tier II: Country- or territory-level sediment carbon stock estimates.

  • Tier III: Modeled country- or territory-level sediment carbon stock estimates.

This document includes country-specific insights and more detailed analysis, including carbon stocks, emissions factors, and ecosystem wetland area for mangrove, marsh, and seagrass habitats. This report details information for the selected geography, Belize.

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This map represents the area of Belize and the locations of both soil cores and vegetation samples included in the Coastal Carbon Atlas.

Total Carbon Stock Estimates

Total Carbon stock estimates were calculated for each geography in total, and for mangrove, tidal marsh, and seagrass habitats, when available.

We estimate that Belize contains a mean estimate of 26270000 megagrams per hectare sediment carbon stock.

We estimate that Belize contains between 30630000 to 21900000 megagrams per hectare sediment carbon to a depth of 1 m, with a mean estimate of 26270000 megagrams per hectare.

Total Geography Level Carbon Stocks
Country Territory Total Stocks Upper CI Lower CI
Belize Belize 26270000 21900000 30630000
Country Territory Habitat Total Stock Lower CI Upper CI Standard Error
Belize Belize Mangrove 24520000 20630000 28420000 2029000

This total estimate includes total mangrove soil carbon stocks, with a mean estimate of 24520000 megagrams per hectare soil carbon to a depth of 1 meter.

Country Territory Habitat Total Stock Lower CI Upper CI Standard Error
Belize Belize Marsh 1746000 1275000 2217000 245500

This total estimate also includes total tidal marsh carbon stocks, with a mean estimate of 1746000 megagrams per hectare soil carbon to a depth of 1 meter.

Territory Habitat Total Stock
Belize Seagrass 52360000

This estimate also includes seagrass soil carbon stocks for Belize which we estimate to have a mean of 52360000 megagrams per hectare sediment carbon stock.

Wetland Areas and Activities

We estimate mangrove area in Belize to be 49850 to 65820 hectares, with a mean estimate of 56780 hectares according to Global Mangrove Watch, Bunting et al. (2018).

We estimate tidal marsh area in Belize to be 4147 to 7740 hectares, with a mean estimate of 6847 according to Worthington et al. (2024).

We estimate seagrass area to be Belize to be a mean of 484800 hectares, according to McKenzie et al. (2020), which aggregates global seagrass data from a number of sources.

Calculated Stocks and Emissions Factors

This section of the report details whether data is available to estimate Tier I, Tier II, or Tier III value estimates for tidal marsh, mangrove, and seagrass ecosystems in Belize.

If data for the selected country is available in the Coastal Carbon Atlas, we have applied a Tier II emission factor based on a simple average of country specific data queried from the Atlas.

Within the Coastal Carbon Atlas, data from the selected geography, Belize, includes soil samples and vegetation samples.

Soil core data from Belize included in the Coastal Carbon Atlas consists of 118 soil profiles from 11 sites. This data comes from 3 distinct habitat type(s). At present, there are 111 vegetation samples.

In the case that there is not yet any country specific information in the Coastal Carbon Atlas, we instead applied IPCC Tier I estimate, which are estimated global values. IPCC Global estimates for mangrove, marsh, and seagrass ecosystems are listed below.

The table titled “Availiability of Territory-Level Data” in this section also details whether the calculated Tier II, or territory-level sediment carbon stock value is significantly different from the estimated global values. This is observed in the “Reporting Insight” column, and can be helpful in observing when a habitat has a higher or lower estimated sediment carbon stock value than the IPCC Global estimates.

IPCC Global Value Estimates (Mg per hectare)
Habitat Mean Lower_CI Upper_CI
mangrove 386 351 424
marsh 255 254 297
seagrass 108 84 139

Data Availiability by Tier - Reporting Insight

Availiability of Territory-Level Data
Country Territory Habitat Tier Reporting Insight
Belize Belize mangrove Territory-Level Territory-level average overlaps global value
Belize Belize marsh Global No Tier II data available at this time
Belize Belize seagrass Global No Tier II data available at this time

Tier I Carbon Stocks - Global Estimates

This section includes estimated global sediment carbon stocks included for Belize. In the case that any habitats; mangrove, tidal marsh, or seagrass do not have availiable territory-level estimates, please refer to Table 2: IPCC Tier I Value Estimates for applicable global values.

Tier II: Territory Level Carbon Stocks

This table includes country or territory level sediment carbon stock estimates for Belize. Estimates in this table were derived from available soil core data queried from the Coastal Carbon Atlas.

A selected country may have available territory-level values for one or multiple habitats, this is dependent on core data accessible through the Coastal Carbon Atlas. If a territory has habitat area, but that respective habitat type does not have an associated territory-level stock estimate, there is insufficient core data in the Coastal Carbon Atlas to estimate sediment carbon stock. At the time of analysis, referencing Version 1.5.0 of the Coastal Carbon Atlas and Data Library, Belize is represented by a total of 118 cores across 3 distinct habitat(s).

Tier II: Territory-Level Carbon Stock Estimates
Country Territory Habitat Mean Stock (MgHa) Lower CI Upper CI Standard Error
Belize Belize mangrove 432 397 467 17.8

Tier III Carbon Stocks

Tier III: modeled sediment carbon stocks were estimated, when available, using remote sensing data from Maxwell et al 2021 and Sanderman et al 2018. The table below details whether estimated values are available for any habitat in Belize, and details any overlap with associated global or territory-level estimates.

If there are no modeled estimates associated with the selected geography and specific habitat of interest, please refer to above tables of global and territory-level sediment carbon stocks.

Tier III: Modeled Carbon Stock Estimates
Country Territory Habitat Mean Stock (MgHa) Lower CI Upper CI
Belize Belize mangrove 322 134 511

Visualizations

1. Data Metrics

2. Emissions Factors

3. Activity Data

References

Bunting, Pete, Ake Rosenqvist, Richard M. Lucas, Lisa-Maria Rebelo, Lammert Hilarides, Nathan Thomas, Andy Hardy, Takuya Itoh, Masanobu Shimada, and C. Max Finlayson. 2018. “The Global Mangrove Watch—a New 2010 Global Baseline of Mangrove Extent.” Remote Sensing 10 (10): 1669. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10101669.
McKenzie, Len J, Lina M Nordlund, Benjamin L Jones, Leanne C Cullen-Unsworth, Chris Roelfsema, and Richard K F Unsworth. 2020. “The Global Distribution of Seagrass Meadows.” Environmental Research Letters 15 (7): 074041. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab7d06.
Morrissette, Hannah K., Stacy K. Baez, Lisa Beers, Nadia Bood, Ninon D. Martinez, Kevin Novelo, Gilbert Andrews, et al. 2023a. “Belize Blue Carbon: Establishing a National Carbon Stock Estimate for Mangrove Ecosystems.” Science of The Total Environment, January, 161829. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161829.
———, et al. 2023b. “Belize Blue Carbon: Establishing a National Carbon Stock Estimate for Mangrove Ecosystems.” Science of The Total Environment, January, 161829. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161829.
Morrissette, Hannah, Stacy K. Baez, Lisa M Schile-Beers, Nadia Bood, Ninon D. Martinez, Kevin Novelo, Gilbert Andrews, et al. 2023a. “Dataset: National Total Ecosystem Carbon Stock for the Mangroves of Belize.” Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. https://doi.org/10.25573/SERC.21298338.
———, et al. 2023b. “Dataset: National Total Ecosystem Carbon Stock for the Mangroves of Belize.” Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. https://doi.org/10.25573/SERC.21298338.
Rogers, Kerrylee, Jeffrey J. Kelleway, Neil Saintilan, J. Patrick Megonigal, Janine B. Adams, James R. Holmquist, Meng Lu, et al. 2019b. “Wetland Carbon Storage Controlled by Millennial-Scale Variation in Relative Sea-Level Rise.” Nature 567 (7746): 91–95. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-0951-7.
———, et al. 2019a. “Wetland Carbon Storage Controlled by Millennial-Scale Variation in Relative Sea-Level Rise.” Nature 567 (7746): 91–95. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-0951-7.
Sanderman, Jonathan. 2017a. “Global Mangrove Soil Carbon: Dataset and Spatial Maps.” Harvard Dataverse. https://doi.org/10.7910/dvn/ocyuit.
———. 2017b. “Global Mangrove Soil Carbon: Dataset and Spatial Maps.” Harvard Dataverse. https://doi.org/10.7910/dvn/ocyuit.
Schile-Beers, Lisa M, Andrew H. Altieri, and J. Patrick Megonigal. 2023b. “Dataset: Mangrove, Tidal Wetland and Seagrass Soil Carbon Stocks Along Latitudinal Gradients.” Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. https://doi.org/10.25573/SERC.11971527.
———. 2023a. “Dataset: Mangrove, Tidal Wetland and Seagrass Soil Carbon Stocks Along Latitudinal Gradients.” Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. https://doi.org/10.25573/SERC.11971527.
UNEP-WCMC, and FT Short. 2018. “Global Distribution of Seagrasses (Version 6.0).” UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre. https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/34031/GDS.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
Wooller, Matthew, Smallwood, Barbara, Jacobson, Myrna, Fogel, and Marilyn. 2003. “Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotopic Variation in Laguncularia Racemosa (l.)(white Mangrove) from Florida and Belize: Implications for Trophic Level Studies.” Hydrobiologia 499. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026339517242.
Worthington, Thomas A., Mark Spalding, Emily Landis, Tania L. Maxwell, Alejandro Navarro, Lindsey S. Smart, and Nicholas J. Murray. 2024. “The Distribution of Global Tidal Marshes from Earth Observation Data.” Global Ecology and Biogeography 33 (8). https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13852.